Getting the Most Out Of Your Camera Phone

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As more people capture their day-to-day memories on camera phones, we have a chance to build up records of our lives the way no previous generation has. But in the camera-phone world, you get a choice between washed-out days and dim, blurry nights. It's like the little cameras have all been partying way too hard for way too long.

Camera-phone manufacturers all trumpet their megapixels, but pixels alone do not a good camera make. (See "More Than Just Megapixels"). Saddled with lousy lenses as well as mediocre image sensors and light meters, phone cameras produce photos that look like they were taken with a toy. One common problem: Cheap lenses tend to be less sharp at the edges of an image. Bad lenses also skew colors and make pictures look like they were painted with Vaseline. Glass lenses are better than plastic ones; and although there are cameras with good plastic lenses, none are in phones.

Camera phones also almost always meter daylight scenes incorrectly and overexpose them. They do poorly in low light as well. Good light-metering logic could help, but it's all too rare. To add insult to injury, many camera phones make you jump through hoops to get your images.

That said, there are ways to make the most of your otherwise-disappointing camera phone.

Keep your pictures as big as possible; that is, use as little compression as you can. Many camera phones have settings for photo "quality" or level of compression. Pump it up to "superfine" to prevent your photos from getting jagged diagonal lines or hideous color haloes.

Let the camera warm up. On most camera phones we've tried, letting the camera collect light for up to 5 seconds before shooting makes for better photos.

Brightness matters. Many camera phones drastically overexpose daylight shots. To get better color, turn down the brightness or exposure setting when you're outdoors.

Don't be seduced by the flash. Camera-phone flashes aren't worthy of the name; they cast a weak beam about a foot in front of your phone. Instead, see if your phone has a "night mode," which uses a long exposure to collect more lightyou'll have to hold your phone very, very still. Better yet, lean on a wall, railing, or other solid object, and you may yet get a picture in a dark room.

Hit the bull's-eye. As noted above, camera-phone lenses aren't as sharp on the edges of an image as they are in the center, and they can warp images or colors as you move away from the middle. So don't try to get artsyput your target smack in the center of your viewfinder.

Pay attention to quality, not megapixels. Many 1MP camera phones take blurrier, grainier, more off-color photos than VGA (640-by-480) camera phones. Take a look at our online library of camera-phone shots and pick the best models, regardless of pixel count. Our current choices: the VGA Motorola V5xx series and the 1MP Nokia 7610.

Take time to learn about your carrier's online photo-album service. Usually, you can post a photo to an online album in two clicks, but you have to go through a maze of menus to send an image to an e-mail address. Post your photos on the album and you can use your (comparatively easy-to-use) Internet connection to get them.

Pick a camera phone with removable memory. If you intend to use your camera phone a lot, choose one with memory cards you can remove and pop into your PC, like the Motorola V710 or Nokia 6620. Secure Digital cards are compatible with the widest range of devices, but all memory cards have readers for PCs. Using a card will save the time, hassle, and cost of uploading or e-mailing your photos through your wireless carrier's networkand may lead to you taking a lot more pictures.

When all else fails, treat it like a toy. Okay, we told you not to try to get artsy. But sometimes you can use your camera's limitations to your creative advantage. There has long been a cult of artists enamored with the idiosyncrasies of toy film cameras such as the Holga and the Lomo, whose limitations are similar to those of camera phones. So use the blurriness, distortion, and inaccurate colors to create a masterpiecealbeit a very small one.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed...
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